The Last Coin Toss
by Emerald Embers
Summary: The opposite of a fix-it fic; five reasons Josh might have been left to his unhappy ending. Mostly gen, some implied Ashley/Chris, Ashley/Sam, and Chris/Josh.


**1\. The time Josh didn't want to be found.**

Mike hadn't come back. Sam hadn't come back.

Even the twisted thing wearing Hannah's tattoo hadn't come back.

Matt and Jess had joined the faces and voices taunting him, reminding him of what he'd abandoned his sisters to, what he'd walked his friends into. What little sleep he got whenever exhaustion overcame him offered no respite, with nightmares as vivid as the hallucinations he dealt with when awake.

He was cold and wet and alone.

"You don't deserve to be found," Hannah said, stroking Josh's hair with her too long, too thin fingers.

"You left us here," Beth said, picking at her rotting skin as if her whole body was scabbed.

"You let us die," Jess whispered, not needing a mouth to say it. Her tongue lay black and still on her chest, her lower jaw held between her hands in her lap.

Matt didn't appear often, but when he did, he was always angry, always upset. "We hardly knew each other, man. How did you fuck up that badly?"

"You belong with us."

Josh didn't hear a voice for the last face, the stranger, but he knew their words regardless.

What had he done?

Oh god, what had he done?

Flashlights swept around the cave while Hannah and Beth beckoned Josh into hiding, and Josh covered his mouth before joining them in the dark, holding his breath until the room was still and quiet and black once more.

He stayed hidden.

He knew what he deserved.

* * *

 **2\. The time Sam and Ashley shouldn't have gone back.**

Sam wasn't sure how long they had spent exploring the mines, each wearing a headlamp and holding a flashlight, Sam armed with a shotgun and Ashley with a blowtorch, but it was as if their story had been scrubbed away. All the mines had left to offer was cold, damp, and memories they would rather forget.

Sam had been furious when the official search was called off - furious at the police, furious at Josh's parents, Matt's parents, Jess' parents, furious at the others for not pushing for someone to prove what they had been through.

Anger was futile though, accomplishing nothing, and with one last group text Sam had said she was going back to search for Josh alone if she had to.

She hadn't expected anyone to come with her.

Ashley was a more than welcome extra set of eyes, and above all else she kept Sam believing in the reason they were conducting this search. Alone, Sam might have talked herself into thinking she had dreamed the wendigo story up, but the company of someone who had been through the same trauma gave her inspiration to keep going.

And it was Ashley who spotted the crawl space Sam had missed while preoccupied looking at all the places they knew they had been through before.

Shining a flashlight down the crawl space didn't tell them anything other than that it ended with another cave, and that the space seemed a little smoother at the bottom than on top. It certainly looked like it had been used before, and Sam took a deep breath before shedding her backpack and reaching into it, testing to see if she'd need to shed anything else before trying to make her way through.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief before backing out carefully, sweeping her flashlight down the crawlspace again, checking again for any movements that didn't belong there.

"Ash, you keep your back to this and if you see anything move, you let me know asa-fucking-p, yeah?"

"You're going in?"

"Someone's got to go first," Sam said. "Might as well be me."

Ashley nodded, before grabbing Sam and hugging her tight. "I'm kind of claustrophobic. A lot. You're gonna be careful, right? Really, really careful?"

"The carefullest," Sam said, returning the hug and patting Ashley's back to comfort her when she wouldn't let go. "Come on, we've got this far."

"Okay," Ashley said, "Okay."

She didn't sound okay, but Sam smiled at her and patted her cheek before doing one last sweep of the crawlspace with her flashlight and climbing inside.

There was something almost comforting about being encased by rock with Ashley guarding her back. Only having one thing to look at, one thing to worry about, that was a relief after searching wide open rooms for any signs of movement before daring to move herself. Most of the crawlspace let her stay on her hands and knees, with only a few feet forcing her into a more snail-like crawl, and it was only as she neared the end of the crawlspace that she froze, knowing she would have to check out the cave at its end alone.

"I'll let you know if the coast is clear," Sam called back to Ashley, hoping that making the promise would give her the confidence to actually do it, and Ashley's little "Sure!" in response helped ease the tightness in her chest just a little.

The floor beneath the crawlspace was clear, and not so low it would cause problems when she needed to return, and doing a slow sweep of the rest of the area with her flashlight showed it was more like a corridor than anything else, empty and curving off at the end out of sight. The ceiling was a little low, but at least it would let her stand while stooped.

Sam let out a relieved breath, crawled out and landed with a soft thump before turning back to the hole. "You can come through now," Sam said, and Ashley cursed before climbing in.

"Keep talking to me, okay? I don't want - I don't want to think about where I am, oh god. Ohhh god, and, and pull me out at the end, I might freeze, oh god, oh god -"

"It's fine, Ash, just keep looking at me! I'm right here. I've got your back and I'll get your arms. Don't think about it, don't close your eyes, just keep crawling and I'll be here for you, yeah?"

Sam kept up the small talk, watching Ashley crawl through bit by bit, shivering and sobbing every so often, and Sam's heart went out to her because even if she'd been afraid at the end of the crawl, she hadn't had claustrophobia to deal with.

"You're good Ash, you're almost -"

Ashley let out part of a scream, cutting herself off sharply by banging her head against the roof of the crawl space before collapsing.

"Ashley? Ashley?" Sam called out, reaching into the crawlspace. "Ashley, please, say something."

The light showed a red trickle under Ashley's head and Sam whimpered before covering her mouth.

She hadn't seen what Ashley had screamed at.

And Ashley had blocked her only way out.

* * *

 **3\. The time nobody could go back.**

It had been a month since they left the mountain. A month of updating each other with any news they heard; Sam had kept in touch with Josh's parents, Emily had followed the police updates, Chris dragged up anything he could find on the internet, and Ashley and Mike had poured over anything on television or in the local papers.

Even with all of them covering different kinds of news, it all turned out useless in the end.

The search party failed. Not just failed - everyone involved had gone missing, and eventually ended up presumed dead. Just like Hannah, just like Beth, just like Josh. The police blamed it on a mine collapse.

It didn't matter that all five survivors had told the same story about the wendigos. It didn't matter that Emily's bite wound wasn't from any known animal. It didn't matter that the worst drug anyone tested positive for was marijuana.

No one took them seriously.

"I can't go back," Mike said when they met up. He'd failed to find Jess, he'd found Josh and lost him, and he couldn't go through all that again.

"Fuck that," Emily said, and when Mike shot her a look, rolled her eyes and added, "I mean fuck the idea of going back. He's dead or turned or starved to death by now and I don't want to know which."

Chris said nothing, just browsing on his phone, lips tight and eyes watery. Ashley took one look before walking over and wrapping her arms around him, and Mike felt another pang of guilt and loss, hating that he didn't have Jess to do the same for him.

"We did our best, guys. We could have all died up there. I'd rather spend the rest of my life trying not to remember that," Sam said, and Mike offered her a fistbump that she returned. It felt fake, but he suspected he would have to fake a lot of feelings over the next few months before he'd get to experience any real happiness again.

"Amen," Emily replied, standing up. "Coffees are on me. Who wants what?"

"Anything without caffeine," Mike said, relieved when she simply nodded before gathering the rest of the group's orders and heading over to the counter.

He didn't miss dating Emily, but he couldn't be more glad he still had her as a friend.

She was practically indestructible, and in a time like this, a group like theirs needed someone made of granite.

* * *

 **4\. The time Chris was too late.**

Chris felt the change in Josh before he saw it. Literally.

He'd cried with relief on recognising Josh's hair, Josh's outfit even with its new stains and tears, and he'd run over to Josh only to have Josh turn and slice open his stomach.

The claws were new, as was the way Josh's mouth had torn open at each side to display needle-like teeth.

Chris dropped to the floor, clutching at the wound and trying not to throw up when he felt things outside him that definitely belonged inside.

He tried not to look down, instead looking at Josh's wide eyes, one milky and the other clear but watering.

Josh let out a pained whine, pushed Chris onto his back before pressing down on Chris' stomach as if that would help matters or stop him bleeding.

"It's okay," Chris tried to say, but his lungs had different ideas about that plan, holding every inhale and refusing to exhale properly, and his limbs ached even where they weren't scratched to pieces from his descent into the mines.

Chris reached up and gripped Josh's shoulder instead, squeezed as tight as his weakened muscles would allow.

It's okay, Chris thought, before the pain in his stomach forced the air back out of him with a scream.

It's okay, it's okay. I'm here.

It's okay.

Chris closed his eyes, felt Josh wrap cold arms around him and hold him tight, and hoped that if there was anything human left in Josh, at least it knew it wasn't dying alone.

* * *

 **5\. The time it was the parents' fault.**

It had been a long, long time since a pale cream envelope with no address and no postmark on it arrived at Melinda Washington's inner city apartment.

"Dear Mrs Washington,

Thank you for your purchase. I hope that my service was satisfactory.

Final payment has been taken.

Kind regards."

Melinda placed the envelope, the letter, and the accompanying photograph of Josh in the living room fire, watched them blacken and burn away to ash and a thin, oily film.

Bob's success was worth this.

It had to be worth it.


End file.
